Thursday, March 31, 2011

No Place Like Home

Today I'm taking my mother HOME after  a three month "vacation" in a hospital then rehab facility.  She broke her hip and wrist on January 2nd and left on a stretcher. 
I know this will more than likely be a short stop on the way to an assisted living facility but she needs to go home to say good bye to the place where she served many a delicious meal to family and friends, planted posies, kissed her husband and scrubbed her welcoming floors.
A life well lived and sacrificial services rendered deserve to be honored with a farewell.
It will not be easy for either of us.  She in letting go and me in her limitations.  But there is a commandment in the Big 10 that goes like this:
"Honor your mother and father that it may go well with you and your days may be long on the earth.  This is the first commandment with a promise!"
I might not be able to trust my feelings or even my energy level but one thing I know -- I can trust God to keep His promises.
So off I go with my dear friend Barbie in tow to take her home for the last time.
Bittersweet. 
Food in the fridge, music on the radio, sheets turned down...
Here is what my friend Sue Milton said about her mothers return after a long stay in rehab:
We were amazed at the difference it made once Mother stepped back into her own house. She just broke down and cried and cried when she stepped through that door. We had hired someone to stay with her, and she dismissed her after the first night! She had a wonderful therapist who came to the house to do rehab for a while and she loved him and she continues to use the big rubber bands and such that he had her work with. I hope the same for Loie. Will you just let me know when you think she's good for a visit? OH, and getting her hair done was also a turn in the road for Mother, so I hope that works for her. Mother loved the hairdresser so much that she considered going all the way back out there each week to get her to continue doing her hair! She liked the companionship in the beauty shop I think as much as the hair fixin. She was at Oaklawn which was just lovely, but moreso to us than to her I think.

Will you pray for our homecoming?  I hope she feels like the Homecoming Queen that she is.

2 comments:

  1. just found your blog. very sweet post as I have been there. I agree with the hair comment. Very important at ANY age for a woman. Gods Grace to you. Praying for you and her.

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  2. Oh, she is the homecoming queen! I remember coming into Loisie's home on Norbourne and it and she were both so welcoming when I would come to visit my little friend, Suzanne (nearly every day!). She has earned respect over all these years and I think that you taking her back to her home (if only for a while) is one of the most respectful things you can do for her. You are a good, good daughter and I love you very much. Katy

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